Persson on why Minecraft is not on Steam

30 Aug 2011 by Paul Younger

"Inherent incompatibility" between the platform the game.
Markus 'Notch' Persson, creator of Minecraft, has spoken out about the reason behind why the incredibly successful indie title is not available on Valve's digital distribution service, Steam.
"Being on Steam limits a lot of what we’re allowed to do with the game, and how we’re allowed to talk to our users," Persson explained. "We (probably?) wouldn’t be able to, say, sell capes or have a map market place on minecraft.net that works with Steam customers in a way that keeps Valve happy."
However, that's not to say that Persson doesn't respect and admired what Valve have managed to achieve with the service, saying that "Steam is the best digital distribution platform I’ve ever seen."
Continuing, Persson said: "It would effectively split the Minecraft community into two parts, where only some of the players can access all of the weird content we want to add to the game... We are talking to Valve about this, but I definitely understand their reasons for wanting to control their platform."
Persson finished by saying that "There’s a certain inherent incompatibility between what we want to do and what they want to do."
This November will play host to 'Minecon' a Minecraft focused convention taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Source: GamaSutra

“Inherent incompatibility” between the platform the game.
Markus ‘Notch’ Persson, creator of Minecraft, has spoken out about the reason behind why the incredibly successful indie title is not available on Valve’s digital distribution service, Steam.
“Being on Steam limits a lot of what we’re allowed to do with the game, and how we’re allowed to talk to our users,” Persson explained. “We (probably?) wouldn’t be able to, say, sell capes or have a map market place on minecraft.net that works with Steam customers in a way that keeps Valve happy.”
However, that’s not to say that Persson doesn’t respect and admired what Valve have managed to achieve with the service, saying that “Steam is the best digital distribution platform I’ve ever seen.”
Continuing, Persson said: “It would effectively split the Minecraft community into two parts, where only some of the players can access all of the weird content we want to add to the game… We are talking to Valve about this, but I definitely understand their reasons for wanting to control their platform.”
Persson finished by saying that “There’s a certain inherent incompatibility between what we want to do and what they want to do.”
This November will play host to ‘Minecon’ a Minecraft focused convention taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Source: GamaSutra

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